The appeal of baby-faced men

What on earth does Kate Moss see in Pete Doherty? According to scientific research, what attracts her is his baby face. Jane Gordon investigates.

When Pete Doherty first lurched into the gaze of the paparazzi as the consort of Kate Moss, it was difficult to understand what she saw in him.

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Despite the attraction of his edgy, rock star life, how on earth could the world's most beautiful woman be in thrall to someone who looked like a refugee from a student squat?

With his large forehead - made more pronounced by the signature trilby - his wide eyes, chubby cheeks, full lips and ever-present sheen of sweat, he was the antithesis of accepted masculine beauty. All the usual features that we traditionally associate with male attractiveness - a strong square jaw, a long, lean face, a defined nose and a firm mouth - are missing from the lead singer of Babyshambles. Indeed, Doherty presents the facial profile of a big (his one really masculine trait is his height) baby.

But, strange as it may seem, there is a scientific explanation for Kate's apparent aberration. According to Dr Anthony Little - an evolutionary psychologist and Royal Society research fellow - there is good reason why contemporary women are attracted to baby-faced men such as Doherty and why the old ideals of what makes a man appealing are changing. In fact, it could well be that just as Kate Moss defines the way women in the 21st century want to look, so Doherty will become the blueprint for what more and more females perceive to be the perfect man.

"As children, boys and girls have similar face shapes, but at puberty hormones act to masculinise or feminise them and produce distinctive features of mature men and women. Testosterone promotes the growth of certain facial features - such as the jaw and the cheekbones - so boys' faces grow more than girls'.

"High levels of oestrogen in growing girls prevent the growth of facial bone and lead to increased thickness of lips and fat deposits in the cheek area. Traditionally, then, the large forehead, snub nose, full cheeks and plump lips of the baby-face are regarded as feminine," explains Dr Little.

However, during extensive research, Dr Little and his associate Dr David Perrett discovered that although women might still be fleetingly drawn to a traditionally masculine face, these days they were much more likely to be attracted to a man with a more feminine or baby-face for a long-term relationship. The main reason for this, they argue, is that a feminine ‘baby face’ is regarded as more caring and nurturing and ultimately such a man will make a better and more involved father.

Faces that are masculine - with dominant features such as square jaws and chiselled cheek bones - are regarded by women as potentially less reliable and involved partners. And in our egalitarian society what the modern woman wants is more caring and less cave man.

But it isn’t just the relative femininity of a baby face that makes it more alluring to a contemporary female. It’s possible that in being drawn to a man such as Doherty, Kate Moss is responding to another important human instinct.

"The facial features of babies across all species of animals - large eyes, relatively large heads and so on - give off universal signals that trigger a biological caring response that operates below the level of consciousness.

"In humans this is even more pronounced, because the human infant, uniquely among animals, requires around eight to ten years of nurturing before it can function independently. When you compare a human baby to a baby goat - which can be independent of its mother within minutes of its birth - you understand how strong this instinct is in us.

Fashion, too, plays a part in the way in which we perceive beauty - male or female. Dr Little points out that if you look at the history of film you can clearly see the way in which male beauty has shifted from the masculine to the feminine. In the modern world in which we have come to value brain over brawn it would now seem that the baby-faced man is king.

"In movies in the 40s and 50s masculinity was the big thing and, although in the 80s there was an odd throwback that gave us Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, that overt masculinity has disappeared. The men that women find the most attractive - from Kate Moss’s ex Johnny Depp to the classic baby-faces of Leonardo di Caprio and Jamie Oliver - conform to the new feminised face that is epitomised by Pete Doherty.

"Even Brad Pitt is a case in point - people might think he has a firm jaw and a masculine appeal, but actually he has the large blue eyes and full lips of the essentially feminine baby-face," he says.

Both Dr Lewis and Dr Little think that another strong pointer to what women find attractive in the male is the kind of mixed signal that Pitt’s appearance gives off. Research suggests that often it is the juxtaposition of an overtly feminine feature - such as very long eye-lashes - in a face that might otherwise be regarded as masculine that can trigger an instant response from a woman.

"Pete Doherty definitely gives off mixed signals. It’s possible that the combination of an innocent baby-face - which suggests vulnerability and arouses her need to nurture - and his "bad-boy" behaviour make him devastatingly attractive to a woman like Kate Moss." says Dr Lewis.

If we are to believe Darwin's theories about natural selection, the inevitable conclusion is that one day all men will look like Pete Doherty. Don't say we didn't warn you!